Erin Merdy, 34, received a sentence of 20 years to life for drowning her three young children near Coney Island’s boardwalk in 2022, after pleading guilty earlier this year to first-degree murder charges, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement that no sentence can fully measure the loss of her son Zachary, 7, her daughter Liliana, 4, and her infant son Oliver, 3 months old, or “the grief their loved ones will carry forever.”
The investigation began in the early hours of Sept. 12, 2022, when New York City police received a call from Merdy’s relatives, prosecutors said, who were concerned she intended to harm her children.
Officers first found Merdy barefoot and soaking wet about two miles (3 kilometers) down the boardwalk from the Coney Island area where she lived. Prosecutors said she repeatedly told officers the children were gone and that she was sorry.
Hours later, prosecutors said the bodies of the children were recovered from the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean near the boardwalk, about a dozen blocks from the stadium where the Brooklyn Cyclones play.
The city medical examiner’s office ruled that the children died by homicide by drowning. In the case against Merdy, prosecutors said evidence included video showing her walking toward the ocean with the children just before 1 a.m., according to the criminal complaint.